Google in 2013

Google is of course a tech giant and a company everyone who’s touched a computer knows of. Google first introduced themselves with their simple search engine in 1998, they have very rapidly and significant progressed, by the year, into the giant they are today. From Google Maps to Google phones, tablets and OS systems, Google is now everywhere! Here’s what we can expect from Google in 2013.

Google-X Division

There is set to be a lot of development at Google in the next year and the first thing that warrants a mention is their futuristic Google-X Division. Google are working on two things that you’ve probably already heard about.

The first is Google Glasses, which are wearable computers which give you a heads up display of the word around you. In the first part of 2013, developers who have pre-ordered them will get their hands on them, and therefore be able to write their own software for them and more. The chances are that we won’t see Google Glasses on the market in 2013, but we’ll certainly come a lot closer to knowing fully what they’ll bring.

The Google-X Division is also working on self-driving cars. Google has received a lot of legislation passes that allows them to drive such cars on roads in various US States such as Nevada, and so you can expect to see a lot more developments in regards to this.

Android

Androids market share has soared in the last few years. It is the fastest growing operating system in the world and this poses some interesting questions on how it will develop and progress in 2013.

Historically developers have been building for iOS first, and thus historically the best apps available were for iDevices through iTunes. However as more and more people buy Android devices, the question is are developers going to start developing for Android first more commonly.

Hardware Division

Google only recently refreshed its line-up of Google Nexus products, which are of course Google branded tablets and smartphones that it develops with other manufacturers. There are however, questions at the moment of how much traction on the market these devices are going to get. Is the new 10-inch Google Nexus tablet going to be competitive enough to make you sell your iPad or at the very least choose it over an iPad?

Nonetheless, expect to see Google release new versions of their Nexus products this year and continue to try and compete with its many competitors in 2013.

Knowledge Graphs

An example of a Google Knowledge Graph – Albert Einstein.

Google did two really interesting things last year with search. One is that they created the Knowledge Graph which is their effort to map out connections with all sorts of different things.

Now if you start to search for something, like for example, if you search for a famous actor, on the right of the screen you will see a box that’ll tell you about other actors that person may have worked with, films they featured in, as well as basic details such as their age and education.

For an example, see the Albert Einstein Knowledge Graph to the right. For Einstein, Google displays images of the scientist, a brief synopses of his life/works and family, as well as books relating to him, and also similar people you might want to read about – in this case for other scientists, like the physicists Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking.

Google wants to bring its Knowledge Graph to a lot more different parts of the search experience. You’ll thus you will soon start to see more and more of those type of connections when you are Googling.

Google Now

The other major development the search giant was working on in the search area was Google Now.

Google Now is a sort of predictive search. For example, when you take out your phone it might say you have to leave to make it to your appointment because there’s traffic right now, or you might want to go down an alternative road because a specific one is closed. This is only available on devices that run the latest version of Android right now, but Google are preparing to invest a lot more resources into developing this kind of new world of search where you don’t even have to type a query.

So, like in previous years, it seems there is a lot we can expect a lot from Google in 2013.

When I’m searching I love the knowledge graph, but as an marketing I don’t like it that much. It is cutting into website traffic for most long tail keywords, especially ones associated with name searches. I guess adapting is the only thing you can do 🙁 .

Amanda- Nice article! I’m going to be looking forward to the Gooogle glasses development. I think it will be really cool and it’s one of those things that sounds “futuristic”, but yet it will probably be out within the next couple of years. The self driving cars sounds crazy as well, but it is definitely becoming a reality. It’s amazing how fast technology is evolving.

I’m really looking forward to the self-driving cars that Google’s working on. I’ve seen a few videos on them already and I’m always impressed by how the car handles itself on the road.

Moreover, I understand the car needs to see what’s happening around it at all times, but that giant spinning thing on top of the car is quite an eyesore! However, I’m guessing the car is not fully finished as of yet and that aspect of it could change in the final design. Even if it didn’t, I wouldn’t mind much anyways because the idea of a self-driving car, even if it’s not a very attractive one, is awesome!

If you are inside the car, you probably wouldn’t even notice the roof mounted camera.

I would agree it is an interesting concept, but I think that the day we are all driving around in self-driving cars is a very long way away yet! We need safer roads, and more reliable computers first. Also, what if someone wants to fix their own car, accidentally tampers with it, and it goes wrong, creating havoc on the roads? Just a thought 🙂

Welcome to the community Mike, good to have you on-board, and thanks for the comment!
Christopher – Admin Team

The Google glasses sound interesting. I wonder if they will be gathering info about the wearer at the same time as giving information about the environment.

I also like the idea of self driving cars however I would be a bit concerned about how a self driving car would react in an emergency. How does the car decide between 2 difficult decisions as opposed to clear cut situations.

It’s worthy to note that the Google self-driving car has driven over 300,000 miles without an accident, according to Google’s official blog, so they seem pretty safe.

What I’d be worried about is that because the cars are driven by artificial-intelligence software, there’s always a possibility that the software can malfunction or have an error of sorts, and then what? Currently, it looks like there is an override feature where a human can take control of the car if things start to go awry, so that’s nice. I just hope that feature remains intact in the final version.